path: root/doc/go_programming_faq.html

<!-- Programming FAQ -->

<h2 id="Pointers">Pointers and Allocation</h2>

<h3 id="pass_by_value">
When are function paramters passed by value?</h3>

<p>
Everything in Go is passed by value.  A function always gets a copy of the
thing being passed, as if there were an assignment statement assigning the
value to the parameter.  For instance, copying a pointer value makes a copy of
the pointer, not the data it points to. 
</p>

<p>
Map and slice values behave like pointers; they are descriptors that
contain pointers to the underlying map or slice data.  Copying a map or
slice value doesn't copy the data it points to.  Copying an interface value
makes a copy of the thing stored in the interface value.  If the interface
value holds a struct, copying the interface value makes a copy of the
struct.  If the interface value holds a pointer, copying the interface value
makes a copy of the pointer, but again not the data it points to. 
</p>

<h3 id="methods_on_values_or_pointers">
Should I define methods on values or pointers?</h3>

<pre>
func (s *MyStruct) someMethod() { } // method on pointer
func (s MyStruct) someMethod() { }  // method on value
</pre>

<p>
When defining a method on a type, the receiver (<code>s</code> in the above
example) behaves exactly is if it were an argument to the method. Define the
method on a pointer type if you need the method to modify the data the receiver
points to. Otherwise, it is often cleaner to define the method on a value type.
</p>

<h3 id="new_and_make">
What's the difference between new and make?</h3>

<p>
In short: <code>new</code> allocates memory, <code>make</code> initializes
the slice, map, and channel types.
</p>

<p>
See the <a href="/doc/effective_go.html#allocation_new">relevant section
of Effective Go</a> for more details.
</p>

<h3 id="64bit_machine_32bit_int">
Why is <code>int</code> 32 bits on 64 bit machines?</h3>

<p>
The size of <code>int</code> and <code>float</code> is implementation-specific.
The 64 bit Go compilers (both 6g and gccgo) use a 32 bit representation for
both <code>int</code> and <code>float</code>.  Code that relies on a particular
size of value should use an explicitly sized type, like <code>int64</code> or
<code>float64</code>.
</p>

<h2 id="Concurrent_programming">Concurrent programming</h2>

<h3 id="What_operations_are_atomic_What_about_mutexes">
What operations are atomic? What about mutexes?</h3>

<p>
We haven't fully defined it all yet, but some details about atomicity are
available in the <a href="go_mem.html">Go Memory Model specification</a>.
Also, some concurrency questions are answered in more detail in the <a
href="go_lang_faq.html">language design FAQ</a>.
</p>

<p>
Regarding mutexes, the <a href="/pkg/sync">sync</a>
package implements them, but we hope Go programming style will
encourage people to try higher-level techniques. In particular, consider
structuring your program so that only one goroutine at a time is ever
responsible for a particular piece of data.
</p>

<p>
Do not communicate by sharing memory. Instead, share memory by communicating.
</p>

<h3 id="Why_no_multi_CPU">
Why doesn't my multi-goroutine program use multiple CPUs?</h3>

<p>
Under the gc compilers you must set <code>GOMAXPROCS</code> to allow the
runtime to utilise more than one OS thread. Under <code>gccgo</code> an OS
thread will be created for each goroutine, and <code>GOMAXPROCS</code> is
effectively equal to the number of running goroutines.  
</p>

<p>
Programs that perform concurrent computation should benefit from an increase in
<code>GOMAXPROCS</code>. (See the <a
href="http://golang.org/pkg/runtime/#GOMAXPROCS">runtime package
documentation</a>.)
</p>

<h3 id="Why_GOMAXPROCS">
Why does using <code>GOMAXPROCS</code> &gt; 1 sometimes make my program
slower?</h3>

<p>
(This is specific to the gc compilers. See above.)
</p>

<p>
It depends on the nature of your program. 
Programs that contain several goroutines that spend a lot of time
communicating on channels will experience performance degradation when using
multiple OS threads. This is because of the significant context-switching
penalty involved in sending data between threads.
</p>

<p>
The Go runtime's scheduler is not as good as it needs to be. In future, it
should recognise such cases and optimize its use of OS threads. For now,
<code>GOMAXPROCS</code> should be set on a per-application basis.
</p>


<h2 id="Functions_methods">Functions and Methods</h2>

<h3 id="different_method_sets">
Why do T and *T have different method sets?</h3>

<p>
From the <a href="http://golang.org/doc/go_spec.html#Types">Go Spec</a>:
</p>

<blockquote>
The method set of any other named type <code>T</code> consists of all methods
with receiver type <code>T</code>. The method set of the corresponding pointer
type <code>*T</code> is the set of all methods with receiver <code>*T</code> or
<code>T</code> (that is, it also contains the method set of <code>T</code>).
</blockquote>

<p>
If an interface value contains a pointer <code>*T</code>,
a method call can obtain a value by dereferencing the pointer,
but if an interface value contains a value <code>T</code>,
there is no useful way for a method call to obtain a pointer.
</p>

<p>
If not for this restriction, this code:
</p>

<pre>
var buf bytes.Buffer
io.Copy(buf, os.Stdin)
</pre>

<p>
would copy standard input into a <i>copy</i> of <code>buf</code>,
not into <code>buf</code> itself.
This is almost never the desired behavior.
</p>

<h3 id="closures_and_goroutines">
Why am I confused by the way my closures behave as goroutines?</h3>

<p>
Some confusion may arise when using closures with concurrency.
Consider the following program:
</p>

<pre>
func main() {
	done := make(chan bool)

	values = []string{ "a", "b", "c" }
	for _, v := range values {
		go func() {
			fmt.Println(v)
			done &lt;- true
		}()
	}

	// wait for all goroutines to complete before exiting
	for i := range values {
		&lt;-done 
	}
}
</pre>

<p>
One might mistakenly expect to see <code>a, b, c</code> as the output. 
What you'll probably see instead is <code>c, c, c</code>.  This is because 
each closure shares the same variable <code>v</code>. Each closure prints the 
value of <code>v</code> at the time <code>fmt.Println</code> is executed, 
rather than the value of <code>v</code> when the goroutine was launched. 
</p>

<p>
To bind the value of <code>v</code> to each closure as they are launched, one
could modify the inner loop to read:
</p>

<pre>
	for _, v := range values {
		go func(<b>u</b>) {
			fmt.Println(<b>u</b>)
			done &lt;- true
		}(<b>v</b>)
	}
</pre>

<p>
In this example, the value of <code>v</code> is passed as an argument to the 
anonymous function. That value is then accessible inside the function as
the variable <code>u</code>.
</p>

<h2 id="Control_flow">Control flow</h2>

<h3 id="Does_Go_have_a_ternary_form">
Does Go have the <code>?:</code> operator?</h3>

<p>
There is no ternary form in Go. You may use the following to achieve the same
result:
</p>

<pre>
if expr {
	n = trueVal
} else {
	n = falseVal
}
</pre>

<h2 id="Packages_Testing">Packages and Testing</h2>

<h3 id="How_do_I_create_a_multifile_package">
How do I create a multifile package?</h3>

<p>
Put all the source files for the package in a directory by themselves.
Source files can refer to items from different files at will; there is
no need for forward declarations or a header file.
</p>

<p>
Other than being split into multiple files, the package will compile and test
just like a single-file package.
</p>

<h3 id="How_do_I_write_a_unit_test">
How do I write a unit test?</h3>

<p>
Create a new file ending in <code>_test.go</code> in the same directory
as your package sources. Inside that file, <code>import "testing"</code>
and write functions of the form
</p>

<pre>
func TestFoo(t *testing.T) {
    ...
}
</pre>

<p>
Run <code>gotest</code> in that directory.
That script finds the <code>Test</code> functions,
builds a test binary, and runs it.
</p>


<h2 id="Data_structures">Data Structures</h2>

<h3 id="nested_array_verbose"
>Why does the syntax for nested array literals seem overly verbose?</h3>

<p>
In Go, you must specify a 2-dimensional array literal like this:
</p>

<pre>
var intArray = [4][4]int{
	[4]int{1, 2, 3, 4},
	[4]int{2, 4, 8, 16},
	[4]int{3, 9, 27, 81},
	[4]int{4, 16, 64, 256},
}
</pre>

<p>
It seems that the <code>[4]int</code> could be inferred, but in general it's
hard to get this sort of thing right.
</p>

<p>
Some of Go's designers had worked on other languages that derived types
automatically in such expressions, but the special cases that arise can
be messy, especially when interfaces, nil, constant conversions, and
such are involved. It seemed better to require the full type
information. That way there will be no surprises.
</p>